The invention relates to alkoxylated amines and to detergent compositions containing such amines. More specifically the invention relates to ethoxylated propoxylated amines and their use in detergent compositions.
Ethoxylated aliphatic amines are known in the art of detergents. Thus, EP-A-0 694 606 discloses hard surface cleaners comprising mixtures of ethoxylated/propoxylated fatty alcohols and ethoxylated fatty amines as foam suppressing agents. DE-A-44 12 380 (=WO 95/27768) discloses hard surface cleaners containing mixtures of ethoxylated fatty amines and fatty acids. EP-B-0 231 886 (=U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,608) discloses the use of ethoxylated fatty amines as solubilisers in concentrated cleaning compositions for bottle washing machines.
EP-B-0 112 593 discloses the use of ethoxylated amines as clay soil removal and antiredeposition agents in laundry detergents. It refers also to U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,278 which discloses cold water detergent compositions containing amines which are either ethoxylated or propoxylated.
WO 97/16514 discloses the use of polyethoxylated alkoxy-propylamines and polypropoxylated alkoxy-propylamines as foam enhancers and stabilisers, particularly in hand dishwash compositions.
EP-B-0 095 136 discloses machine dishwash rinse aids containing ethylene oxide adducts to propylene oxide/aliphatic (di)amine condensates which contain blocks of 5-50 mol ethylene oxide and blocks of 30-150 mol of propylene oxide. The exemplified products contain block condensates derived from ethylene diamine and from an unspecified aliphatic amine. Similar products are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,814.
FR 2 459 830 discloses compositions for cleaning and descaling bathroom equipment comprising sulphamic acid and ethoxylated fatty amines as viscosity enhancers. GB 1 443 244 discloses similar compositions comprising ethoxylated or propoxylated fatty amines for the same purpose. Also, EP-B-0 276 501 discloses a large variety of tertiary amines together with aromatic sulfonate salt hydrotropes as viscosity enhancers in acid bathroom cleaners. Among the long list of amines mentioned are many ethoxylated and propoxylated fatty amines and a few symmetrical mixed ethoxylated/propoxylated fatty amines containing one ethyleneoxy and one propyleneoxy group in both alkoxy chains.